The Foundry Roundtable Episode 119: The Alliance Exploration Initiative

drogyn1701

Welcome to the Foundry Roundtable, a weekly podcast dedicated to Foundry missions, mission building and other UGC issues starring Foundry authors Drogyn1701, Markhawkman and Greendragoon, with special guest, Wininoid.

This is our last episode before the holidays. We'll be officially returning January 6th. However, we may do an impromptu livestream or two as schedules allow. Keep an eye on our twitter feed, @foundryroundtab, for any updates.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JE4q3_OP6K0

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NEWS

Zeroniousrex expressed willingness to add Cryptic NPCs that aren't available as stock NPCs
Player Herald ships have been added to the Foundry costume editor

IN THE FOUNDRY

Drogyn, Mark and Dragoon have been otherwise distracted by the Winter Wonderland.
Wininoid talks about his new exploration mission he's working on.

DISCUSSION

Drogyn reviews some of the new additions to the Foundry in 2015
Is it better to use a high-traffic, but cluttered Foundry door or a more remote but exclusive Foundry door?
We lay out an idea for the next Foundry anthology: The Alliance Exploration Initiative.

COMMUNITY QUESTION

What do you think of the idea for the Alliance Exploration Initiative? What would like to see?


We livestream on Wednesdays at 7:30PM EST/4:30PM PST on twitch.tv/thefoundryroundtable with episodes launching the following Monday.

If you have a topic you'd like to see us cover, have a mission you want promoted, or would like to be a guest-host, e-mail us at FoundryRoundtable@live.com or follow us on Twitter: @FoundryRoundtab

paxfederatica

Re: Alliance Exploration Initiative
I'd definitely be down with this idea, though I might be late to the party depending on how long it takes me to finish "Mirrorball". I have rudimentary ideas for a mission along the lines of TNG "Booby Trap" (minus the holodeck romance) and a first-contact mission.

Re: Old ESD maps for starbase interior
You might want to play "Ghosts of War, Part V" (if you haven't already) to see how I did combat aboard ESD, in case you want to do hostile alien boarding scenarios and such.

Re: Sierra Outpost II
I got a bit nostalgic when you walked through that map - it was the very first interior map I ever built in, for the original version of what eventually became "Ghosts of War, Part I". (Back then it was about Gorn separatists who were raiding an outpost to steal a red matter detonator; that map stood in for the outpost.) Alas, the map didn't make the cut for my eventual rewrite of that mission.

Re: Foundry Challenges
Timberwolf1701 says he and Zenas Expeditionary Force are starting another Foundry challenge on December 17th, similar to the one I entered and won this summer with "Trouble In Paradise". I might skip this one because I don't want to rush "Mirrorball" (I planned a Spring 2016 release for that mission), but I thought I should give our fellow authors a heads-up about that.

The grand prize for the first contest was that I had my mission liveplayed, and also a trailer made for it by ZEF; I assume this time around will be similar. As an example of ZEF's handiwork, here is the trailer they made for my winning mission:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdI6C2eAMfo&feature=youtu.be

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And here is the liveplay:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAuayWHRWRk&feature=youtu.be

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markhawkman

I have to wonder what Booby Trap would have been like if they'd actually explored the old ship.

paxfederatica

I actually have two first contact/Prime Directive missions in mind. Both involve civilizations that have developed their own versions of familiar Trek tech but not warp drive yet.

The first one has been on my back burner since before Legacy of Romulus. A civilization has developed transporter technology, but it is mainly being used by its authorities to get rid of undesirables, political protesters etc. by scattering them across vast uninhabited regions of the planet to fend for themselves or (preferably) die. Said authorities don't even want their public to know the technology exists, lest their misuse of it be exposed.

The other one is something I once kicked around writing as a spec script. In this case the aliens have developed subspace communications and become aware of the Federation's existence, so they have broadcast an invitation to the Feds to send a starship to visit. But when the player's ship arrives, it is quickly attacked by an array of powerful weapons on the planet and in orbit. It turns out that thousands of years prior, a previous civilization had built this fully automated weapons array to defend the planet with extreme prejudice, but then they died out and their successors never figured out that the ruins left behind were, in fact, this automated array until now. The player ends up having to coordinate his/her efforts aboard the ship with the aliens on the surface to try and shut down the array before they can make formal first contact.

starfarertheta

drogyn1701 wrote: »

COMMUNITY QUESTION

What do you think of the idea for the Alliance Exploration Initiative? What would like to see?

Now this could be really fun.

One idea I have for the station's supporting cast would be to have a "collector of rare antiquities." Basically, this character procures as many things from the frontier as he can through various means, and then tries to make a profit off them. The only problem is that this character would be, um, highly enthusiastic about his chosen occupation leading to an incident or two. Such incidents could involve strange artifacts that weren't properly inspected.

markhawkman

Hmm.. I wonder is this needs to be just the big three or if random allies could show up too?

duncanidaho11

markhawkman wrote: »

Hmm.. I wonder is this needs to be just the big three or if random allies could show up too?

Well as shown by the Iconian war stuff (ex. who's at the final battle) that the big three are working with a lot of random allies of late. Cardies, Kobali, I'd think most of the friendly Trek species would be fair game (because even if they have their own stuff to deal with and may be quite far away, a small project like this starbase is a way of having a joint venture with the bigger powers without having to spend a whole lot of resources.) For example we could have the Borg co-op contribute to the Station's information systems, the Ferengi could run a trading post, and the Talaxians could open up a BBQ joint. :P

And of course because Foundry our stuff would be very cool to include too where appropriate (though ATM I don't have a species to contribute, the big one is undergoing some changes in the next episode.)

markhawkman

Yeah that was kinda the plan. What are the minor powers doing right now?

duncanidaho11

markhawkman wrote: »

Yeah that was kinda the plan. What are the minor powers doing right now?

Might depend on how we take the prospect of having to do major re-writes with new cryptic content. I'd especially like to see the Cardassians up to something fresh given that we only really had the true way to deal with recently but that might be the subject of another season. :P

(focusing a bit more on them also launches off from the collaboration at the Lukari System.)

The way I'd go is that the Cardassians are putting considerable effort establishing a non-military presence through quadrant (to show how far they've come since the war) and jumping at low cost opportunities to collaborate with major powers on science/exploration/development projects.

For the rest, the Borg Cooperative could be involved as a "foot-hold" venture that might lead to other deals with the FED/KDF/RR that they'd rather be negotiating for (more to do with protection from the collective). The Breen could be using the exploration initiative more opportunistically, using a joint project to investigate a region of space which has been historically problematic for them (insert references to lost ships here). The Kobali could be involved as a way for some to reconnect with their past (without actually delving into it) and as a manageable way of compensating the Alliance for their help in defending Kobali Prime. And the Talaxians could have just invited themselves along and no one involved with the project has had the will to say "no" to them. :P

markhawkman

Then there's the Kazon, some elements are friendly. The same is true of the Hirogen. It'd also be interesting to see what becomes of the Vaadwaur now that their Iconian masters are no longer supporting them.

Of the races I've used in foundry that Cryptic hasn't...

Boslic(canon race): I'm thinking they got caught in the crossfire and lost a lot of stuff due to being near actual targets when the Heralds attacked.

Sheliak(canon): I'm thinking they got left alone as the Alliance stays out of their space, and they're not humanoids. (The Iconians seemed to be going after humanoids mostly.)

FGC-47 lifeforms(canon): They don't really understand what's going on, but they decided to drain any Herald ships that enter their nebula. The Heralds.... seem to be unaware of their existence due to the energy based nature of the race and think the power drains are just part of the nebula. Thus they avoid it.

Dark Soldiers(my creation): while not actually humanoids they look enough like humanoids that the Heralds attacked them anyways.

duncanidaho11

I've also brought up the Chrysalians (could just be acting as intermediaries for all species involved with the exploration initiative while subtly trying to get more out of it for themselves, taking advantage of post-war gaps), Antedeans (text only, investing in project in exchange for having other species do their exploring for them (especially after war)), and Nyberite Alliance (could be a failed partnership, they expressed interest but couldn't overcome the distance factor (and perhaps losses suffered during the Iconian War) which is the one thing known about them besides they're hiring.)

lincolninspace

For non -stock npcs I would like the first that come to mind are Morn the Xindi reptilians and the ancient lconians

drogyn1701

Well guys the beauty of this project is that as long as your mission has something to do with exploration, you can tell whatever story you want, and have it be a part of the series. So if you want to bring in someone other than the Big Three and tell an exploration story with them, you can!

markhawkman

Oh of course. but it's fun bouncing ideas back and forth.

drogyn1701

markhawkman wrote: »

Oh of course. but it's fun bouncing ideas back and forth.

Do carry on then

duncanidaho11

So...the Voth.

Is anyone else here thinking about an exploration mission with them? Without wishing to spoil too much, the questionable attempt at cooperation in my next mission could go either way (haven't decided). If someone's wanting also wanting them to play nice or to use them as a villain it would be quite helpful to know just so I gauge just how far I can take whichever direction I end up choosing (I really don't want to write something that explicitly forbids something else that happens in another included mission.)

markhawkman

Hmm... they hate us, but not as much as some of their other enemies. So yeah, some level of cooperation is possible, such as the mission where they help of fight the Vaads to save the Turei.

duncanidaho11

markhawkman wrote: »

Hmm... they hate us, but not as much as some of their other enemies. So yeah, some level of cooperation is possible, such as the mission where they help of fight the Vaads to save the Turei.

And you can imagine that continuing on through the Iconian War to some extent. They were never shown in any of the major battles we were involved with in the AQ/BQ but they could have been more cooperative with other species in the DQ.

But, they're still Voth with a heavily, heavily reinforced doctrine that puts them above everything else. With time you can easily write in hostilities re-emerging. That's where we can go either way, though I'd personally like to work with a more diversified Voth where individual commanders are taking increasingly different approaches to other species, depending on their experiences thus far. Voth who only fought at the Solonae Sphere might still be highly xenophobic but Vaadwuar War/Iconian War vets might not be.

markhawkman

Yeah, It'd also be interesting to explore just how much their massive egos have deflated since getting their butts kicked by the Vaads.

duncanidaho11

markhawkman wrote: »

Yeah, It'd also be interesting to explore just how much their massive egos have deflated since getting their butts kicked by the Vaads.

And us...and the Undine... :P

markhawkman

And the Borg. I get the feeling only the Turei like the Voth...

markhawkman

The next show is scheduled for tomorrow at 630 pm central US time.